1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an enclosure for housing an automatic teller machine comprising a pair of telescoping sections which expand from their nested position to provide a structure sufficiently large to be entered by service personnel, and which takes up minimum room when nested.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic unmanned teller machines are common in today's society. Such machines are commonly located away from the principal banking offices, such as in lobbies, airports, shopping centers or installed in and accessible from an outside wall of a bank building. Most of such machines have 24 hour walk-up or drive-up availability, and the machines must be secure from access by unauthorized persons both from the outside where the automated banking is performed by the public and from the inside where the mechanisms of the machine and usually cash are located.
In addition to availability and security, another factor in the location for such machines is that they take up as little space as possible. When installed on an outside wall of a bank building it is important that the machine be accessible for servicing, but if its security enclosure extends too far into the banking premises, it takes away from room otherwise available for bank workers. When the machine is being serviced it is also necessary that such servicing take place in a secure environment. All these factors are possible if the housing for such machines comprises a pair of telescoping sections, one of which fits within the other, with access into the enclosure being possible only when the two sections of the enclosure are unmeshed or separated from the intermeshed or nested position.
An expandable security structure for housing an automatic teller machine comprising a pair of telescoping sections that nest together is shown in Hastings U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,523 and to Stine U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,302, but neither of these references have the simplicity of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a secure enclosure for housing an automatic teller machine in which a pair of telescoping sections expand from a nested position which takes up a minimum of space to an expanded position where access is possible into the enclosure for servicing.
Another object of this invention is an expandable security structure containing an automatic teller machine in which the teller machine is accessible for use by the public but is secure from tampering and theft when in its closed position.
A further object of this invention is an expandable security structure for housing an automatic teller machine in which one portion is easily movable between a nested position for security and an expanded position for servicing.